Goats follow human pointing gestures in an object choice task

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are extremely adept in interpreting human-given cues, such as the pointing gesture. However, the underlying mechanisms on how domestic non-companion species use these cues are not well understood. We investigated the use of human-given pointing gestures by goats (Capra hircus) in an object-choice task, where an experimenter surreptitiously hid food in one of two buckets. Subjects first had to pass a pre-test where the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by a proximal pointing gesture. Subjects that succeeded in the use of this gesture were transferred to the actual test. In these subsequent test trials, the experimenter indicated the location of the food to the subject by using three different pointing gestures: proximal pointing from a middle position (distance between target and index finger: 30 cm), crossed pointing from the middle position (distance between target and index finger: 40 cm), asymmetric pointing from the position of the non-baited bucket (distance between target and index finger: 90 cm). Goats succeeded in the pointing gestures that presented an element of proximity (proximal and crossed) compared to when the experimenter was further away from the rewarded location (asymmetric). This indicates that goats can generalise their use of the human pointing gesture but might rely on stimulus/local enhancement rather than referential information. In addition, goats did not improve their responses over time, indicating that no learning took place. The results provide a greater understanding of human-animal interactions and social-cognitive abilities of livestock, which allows for the provision of enhanced management practices and welfare conditions.

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Goats Follow Human Pointing Gestures in an Object Choice Task

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00915 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christian Nawroth ◽

Zoe M. Martin ◽

Alan G. McElligott

Keyword(s):

Choice Task ◽

Object Choice ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Human Pointing

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Horses with sustained attention follow the pointing of a human who knows where food is hidden

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95727-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Monamie Ringhofer ◽

Miléna Trösch ◽

Léa Lansade ◽

Shinya Yamamoto

Keyword(s):

Sustained Attention ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Choice Task ◽

Attentional State ◽

Object Choice ◽

Highly Sensitive ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Communicative Gestures ◽

The Relationship

AbstractWhen interacting with humans, domesticated species may respond to communicative gestures, such as pointing. However, it is currently unknown, except for in dogs, if species comprehend the communicative nature of such cues. Here, we investigated whether horses could follow the pointing of a human informant by evaluating the credibility of the information about the food-hiding place provided by the pointing of two informants. Using an object-choice task, we manipulated the attentional state of the two informants during food-hiding events and differentiated their knowledge about the location of the hidden food. Furthermore, we investigated the horses’ visual attention levels towards human behaviour to evaluate the relationship between their motivation and their performance of the task. The result showed that horses that sustained high attention levels could evaluate the credibility of the information and followed the pointing of an informant who knew where food was hidden (Z = − 2.281, P = 0.002, n = 36). This suggests that horses are highly sensitive to the attentional state and pointing gestures of humans, and that they perceive pointing as a communicative cue. This study also indicates that the motivation for the task should be investigated to determine the socio-cognitive abilities of animals.

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Ovariectomy Impairs Socio-Cognitive Functions in Dogs

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani9020058 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 58 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Anna Scandurra ◽

Alessandra Alterisio ◽

Anna Di Cosmo ◽

Antonio D’Ambrosio ◽

Biagio D’Aniello

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Learning Task ◽

Choice Task ◽

Canis Lupus Familiaris ◽

Object Choice ◽

Navigation Strategy ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Choice Frequency

Recent studies have underlined the effect of ovariectomy on the spatial cognition of female dogs, with ovariectomized dogs showing a clear preference for an egocentric rather than an allocentric navigation strategy whereas intact females did not show preferences. Intact females had better performances than gonadectomized females in solving a learning task in a maze. Ovariectomy also affects socio-cognitive abilities, reducing the dog’s level of attention on the owner. We tested dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in the object choice task paradigm to assess whether an ovariectomy could impair females’ ability to follow human signals. Forty pet dogs (18 intact females (IF) and 22 gonadectomized females (GF)) were tested in the object choice task paradigm using the human proximal pointing gesture. For the analysis, the frequency of correct, wrong and no-choices was collected; moreover, the latency of the correct choices was also considered. The IF group followed the pointing gestures more often than the GF group and with a lower latency, whereas a significantly higher no-choice frequency was recorded for the GF group. These results show a detrimental effect of ovariectomy on dogs’ socio-cognitive skills related to the responsiveness to human pointing gestures.

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ManyDogs 1: A Multi-Lab Replication Study of Dogs' Pointing Comprehension

10.31234/osf.io/f86jq ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

ManyDogs ◽

Julia Espinosa ◽

Emily Bray ◽

Daphna Buchsbaum ◽

Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Cognition ◽

Eye Contact ◽

Open Science ◽

Choice Task ◽

Science Practices ◽

Object Choice ◽

Testing Environments ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Single Laboratory ◽

Human Pointing

To promote collaboration across canine science, address reproducibility issues, and advance open science practices within animal cognition, we have launched the ManyDogs consortium, modeled on similar ManyX projects in other fields. We aimed to create a collaborative network that (a) uses large, diverse samples to investigate and replicate findings, (b) promotes open science practices of preregistering hypotheses, methods, and analysis plans, (c) investigates the influence of differences across populations and breeds, and (d) examines how different research methods and testing environments influence the robustness of results. Our first study combines a phenomenon that appears to be highly robust, dogs’ ability to follow human pointing, with a question that remains controversial: do dogs interpret pointing as an informative gesture, as an imperative command, or as a simple associative cue? We collected preliminary data (N = 61) from a single laboratory on two conditions of a 2-alternative object choice task: (1) Ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup after making eye-contact and saying the dog’s name); (2) Non-ostensive (experimenter pointed to a baited cup without making eye-contact or saying the dog’s name). Dogs followed the ostensive point, but not the non-ostensive point, significantly more often than expected by chance. Preliminary results also provided suggestive evidence for variability in point-following across dog breeds. The next phase is the global participation stage of the project. We propose to replicate this protocol in a large and diverse sample of research sites, simultaneously assessing replicability between labs and further investigating the question of dogs’ point-following comprehension.

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Young children’s developing ability to integrate gestural and emotional cues.

10.31234/osf.io/jubeq ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gregor Kachel ◽

David Johannes Kaspar Hardecker ◽

Manuel Bohn

Keyword(s):

Facial Expressions ◽

Choice Task ◽

Group Level ◽

Emotional Cues ◽

Object Choice ◽

Positive Expression ◽

Communicative Development ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Gaze Cues

In three studies, children between 22 and 46 months of age (N=180) had to integrate pointing gestures or gaze cues with positive and negative facial expressions to succeed in an object-choice-task. In a between-subjects-design, finding the toy required children to either choose (positive expression) or avoid (negative expression) the indicated target. Study 1 showed that 22-month-olds are better at integrating positive compared to negative facial expressions with pointing gestures. Study 2 tracked the integration of negative expressions and pointing across development, finding an unexpected, u-shaped trajectory with group-level success only at 46 months. Study 3 showed that already 34-month-olds succeeded when pointing was replaced with communicative gaze. Findings show that communicative cues need to be studied in conjunction to draw an ecologically valid picture of communicative development, and that pointing – beyond indexing - has an affirmative meaning for young children.

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The performance of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) on two versions of the object choice task

Animal Cognition ◽

10.1007/s10071-021-01500-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hannah Clark ◽

David A. Leavens

Keyword(s):

Spatial Configuration ◽

Choice Task ◽

Canis Lupus Familiaris ◽

Testing Environment ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Distance ◽

Comparable Performance ◽

The Subject ◽

Object Choice Task ◽

Set Up

AbstractObject choice task (OCT) studies are widely used to assess the phylogenetic and ontogenetic distribution of the understanding of communicative cues, with this understanding serving as a proxy for the discernment of communicative intentions. Recent reviews have found systematic procedural and methodological differences in studies which compare performances across species on the OCT. One such difference concerns the spatial configuration of the test set-up, specifically the distances between the two containers (inter-object distance) and the subject–experimenter distance. Here, we tested dogs on two versions of the task: a central version in which the containers were in the subjects’ direct line of vision, and a peripheral version in which the position of the containers was distal to the subject. Half of the subjects were tested with a barrier in the testing environment (as nonhuman primates are tested) and the other half without. We found that dogs tested with a barrier performed significantly better in the central version and were more likely to fail to make a choice in the peripheral version. Dogs tested without a barrier showed comparable performance on the two versions. We thus failed to find support for the distraction hypothesis in dogs. We discuss potential explanations for this, highlighting how methodological differences in the presentation of the OCT can influence outcomes in studies using this paradigm.

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Domestic goats, Capra hircus, follow gaze direction and use social cues in an object choice task

Animal Behaviour ◽

10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.05.008 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 69 (1) ◽

pp. 11-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 178

Author(s):

Juliane Kaminski ◽

Julia Riedel ◽

Josep Call ◽

Michael Tomasello

Keyword(s):

Choice Task ◽

Social Cues ◽

Gaze Direction ◽

Capra Hircus ◽

Object Choice ◽

Object Choice Task

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Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Pointing Gestures

Multimodal Human Computer Interaction and Pervasive Services ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-386-9.ch009 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 166-186

Author(s):

Christian Müller-Tomfelde ◽

Fang Chen

Keyword(s):

Dwell Time ◽

Spatial Organisation ◽

Core Element ◽

Temporal Domain ◽

Pointing Gestures ◽

Temporal And Spatial ◽

The Right ◽

Pointing Gesture ◽

Human Pointing

The detailed and profound understanding of the temporal and spatial organisation of human pointing actions is key to enable developers to build applications that successfully incorporate multimodal human computer interaction. Rather than discussing an ideal detection method for manual pointing we will discuss crucial aspects of pointing actions in time and space to develop the right solution for a particular application. One core element of pointing in the temporal domain is the so called dwell-time, the time span that people remain nearly motionless during pointing at objects to express their intention. We also discuss important findings about the spatial characteristics of the target representation for the pointing gesture.The findings foster better understanding of the role of pointing gestures in combination with other modalities and inform developer with substantial knowledge about the temporal-spatial organisation of the pointing gesture.

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